Today I joined some friends in floating in my kayak down the lower part of the American River.  This part of the river, though surrounded by residential development, turns in broad meanders.  At some bends bluffs rise up to about sixty feet. Willows, pampas grass with their flags, cottonwoods turning yellow, wild grape climbing in their branches with shades of deep orange and red, even a few palm trees, mix in with the predominant oaks on the banks.

The river is currently awash with migrating salmon.  Up to about a meter long and tall enough that their dorsal fins and tails stick out of shallow riffles like a miniature whale, they search out gravelly patches to spawn.  We could see them gliding under us in the deeper water, some mottled with white and pink fungii which accompanies their final journey from salt to fresh water.  In shallower water, they would be startled by a kayak floating among them and zig away from towards the other boats like a demented torpedo, never hitting their target but leaving a jet trail of ripples to mark their path.  While we saw some leap completely out of the water, many seem tired enough they don’t flee.  One swam directly under my boat, and didn’t seem the least startled by my touch as I reached down and touched his back.

The salmon, especially those who have completed their mission and expired, attract flocks of birds.  There were hundreds of contented-looking seagulls crowded onto each gravel bar, and more standing watchfully in evenly-spaced sentry positions along the bank.  Turkey vultures, when not wheeling serenely overhead, seem to prefer groups of about a half-dozen, and share the gravel bars with the seagulls, though I didn’t see any bird sharing his catch as there is apparently enough for all.  At one point an osprey wheeled overhead with his catch, looking for the best place to dine without the ogling of our kayak party.

Besides these predators and scavengers, we saw flocks of what appeared to be golden-eye, a few cormorants, four large grey heron stalking calmly the grasses at the shore, scattered egrets, mallards whose iridescent head features change from a backlit dark purple on your approach, to an emerald green as you float past them into the warm afternoon sun.

The following simulated aerial shot is from Google Earth, and shows the portion of the river we traversed today, from top right to bottom left.

Update 11/21 added a photo from Randall Smith. See some of his other work here.